Friday, July 25, 2014

Perhaps the President most unfriendly to the freedom of religion in America. . .

An
executive order President Obama signed Monday prohibiting sexual
orientation discrimination in federal hiring may not immediately affect
many religious organizations, but leaders are still raising their
eyebrows.

The executive order amends a 1965 order prohibiting some forms of
discrimination by federal contractors. The old text forbade contractors
from discriminating "against any employee or applicant for employment
because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." Obama's
revision adds "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" between "sex"
and "national origin."

Many religious organizations, such as World Vision, World Relief, and
Catholic Charities partner with the federal government, but often
receive grants, not contracts, so are not affected by the order, said
Stanley Carlson-Thies, director of the Institutional Religious Freedom
Alliance.

Religious organizations with federal grants are currently protected: A 2007 religious exemption memo
from the federal attorney general's office says the Religious Freedom
Restoration Act "is reasonably construed" to exempt World Vision (and
other religious organizations that administer federal funds through
social services programs) from religious nondiscrimination requirements
on other federal grantees.

The executive order also lets stand a George W. Bush-era provision
allowing religious contractors to hire employees "of a particular
religion," said Thomas Berg, a professor of law and public policy at the
University of St. Thomas (Minn.).

"Several federal courts have held that this language, incorporated from
elsewhere in antidiscrimination law, allows religious organizations to
have standards concerning employees' conduct if those moral standards
stem from the organization's religious beliefs," Berg said.

These past orders add up to a patchwork of protection for religious
organizations, said Douglas Laycock, a professor of law and religious
studies at the University of Virginia.

"And very important, [the] executive order creates no right for anyone
to sue anyone else. So gay rights groups cannot organize litigation
against religious contactors," he said. "Only the contracting agencies
can enforce this order, and they may quietly enforce it with attention
to religious liberty—which is what this administration has mostly done
so far." However, that may not always be the case, said Jenny Yang, vice
president of advocacy and policy for World Relief, a federal grantee.

Hidden in the generalities is the situation of Gordon College, a respected Christian institution, which has been thrust into the fray for
requesting a religious exemption from the president’s executive order
prohibiting any one doing business with the government to discriminate on the
basis of sexual orientation. It is of note that the Hobby Lobby religious exemption for Obamacare contraception coverage explicitly declared
that the ruling did not apply in cases of discrimination. The next great issue of religious liberty issue may well be the situation of Gordon College.

This represents the continuing quest of the Obama Administration to reduce the constitution freedom of religion to a mere freedom to worship and this require that every other aspect of any religious organization or church conform to all federal restrictions, regulations, executive orders, and laws without regard to their status as religious organizations.

Either this President is the most unfriendly resident of the Oval Office to the freedom of religion in America or else he is determined to make all religious organizations subservient to his own views. This action is a dangerous precedent for the narrowing of the right guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and could be the signal for more retraining of the rights of churches and Christians to live by their faith freely and unencumbered by federal regulation or requirement.

8 comments:

"This represents the continuing quest of the Obama Administration to reduce the constitution freedom of religion to a mere freedom to worship and this require that every other aspect of any religious organization or church conform to all federal restrictions, regulations, executive orders, and laws without regard to their status as religious organizations."

Still waiting for any Lutheran pastors to offer imprecatory prayers to God to rain destruction down on the wickedness of the murdering, traitorous Obama and his regime of thugs.

Oops. But that might upset any demonicrat supporters sitting in the pews, or on the board of elders, or in District or Synodical offices.

Even Jesus used prayers of imprecation as in Matthew. 11:20-24; 23:13-39; Mark 11:14; Luke 10:10-16 .

Martin Luther referred to imprecatory prayers when he noted, "We should pray that our enemies be converted and become our friends and, if not, that their doing and designing be bound to fail and have no success and that their persons perish rather than the Gospel and the kingdom of Christ" (Luther’s Works, V 21, CPH, 1956, 1000).

In “On War Against the Turk” Luther gave an example: “But as the pope is Antichrist, so the Turk is the very devil. The prayer of Christendom is against both. Both shall go down to hell, even though it may take the Last Day to send them there; and I hope it will not be long.”

In his Large Catechism, Part III. 68-70, Martin Luther’s explanation of the Third Petition, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” including the imprecatory nature of the Lord’s Prayer:

"Such prayer, then, is to be our protection and defense now, is to repel and put down all that the devil, Pope, bishops, tyrants, and heretics can do against our Gospel. Let them all rage and attempt their utmost, and deliberate and resolve how they may suppress and exterminate us, that their will and counsel may prevail: over and against this one or two Christians with this petition alone shall be our wall against which they shall run and dash themselves to pieces. This consolation and confidence we have, that the will and purpose of the devil and of all our enemies shall and must fail and come to naught, however proud, secure, and powerful they know themselves to be."

Thus, per the Lutheran Confessions, every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, Christians are praying an imprecatory prayer that demonic tyrants (e.g., Obama and his demonicrat supporters) dash themselves to pieces according to God’s will.

Gee Carl, I guess that makes you a much better (re: authentic) Lutheran than myself. Indeed, your coined term "Lufauxran" has appeared in a good many of your posts, both here and elsewhere. I think that, along with a cut-and-paste approach, this constitutes the majority of your approach; instead of seizing upon my point, which is merely a call to humility in dealing in such matters, you trot out the Trojan horse cry of "eisegesis!" and proceed in your inimitable fashion to shred via the aforementioned methods.

You have my word as a confessional that I will never reply to another of your posts again.

Bask in your own self-congratulating satisfaction. I will now go and repent of even having bothered to engage.

Gee, Wylde, your irrational guess has nothing to do with what I specifically stated about your post, and supported with references, links, and quoted (cut-and-paste) excerpts. Your misuse of Scripture was indeed eisegetic.

And now, in a hold-my-breath-until-I-turn-blue tantrum, you announce to the internet world that you will never reply to another of my posts again.

It's just not Bathhouse Barry who is attempting to subvert morality in the U.S. East coast establishment GOP lobbyists, as well as organizations like Log Cabin Republicans, are trying to soften Republican positions opposing queer marriages.

According to an article, "Lobbyists quietly advise GOP on gay marriage shift," lobbyists to the GOP seem to have persuaded eight Republicans-in-name-only (RINO), including Rep. David Jolly (FL), to shift their stance on queer marriage. Jolly said last week that he believed states should honor same-sex marriages, although he claimed it was “contrary to his Christian beliefs.”

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